"Big looking brute" --------------------- yeah it is rather substantial for lawn mowing ... But I didnt buy it solely for lawn mowing purposes... I will say the guy had quiet a few of these things stashed away and if I had the choice I might have gotten the 22x model instead. Mostly because I felt I didnt really need to climb up onto a big @ss brute GT (just a brute GT would have sufficed) . For the first couple of days afterward - I felt a little bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger driving around on the Humvee of garden tractors. I think that the 22x probably would have done me nicely. However the size of the machine wouldnt have changed, just the height - So I went forward with the purchase on the 444. They sure are a rugged machine - this morning I was out there and started it up to move it. Letting it warm up a bit - I was amazed at that cast iron Kohler motor and how it idles so lowww - you can almost count the revolutions as it fires. (they dont make em like that anymore). "GT engineering for granted" ------------------------------- I do believe that as well... I dont think the engineers are designing tractors so much as they are designing something with a predetermined life time... Instead of selling quality product, parts and services - they sell junk that needs to be replaced every few years. Its almost as if these guys should be taken to a tractor junkyard and shown what heavy duty really looks like, as opposed to making Sears tractors with plastic bumpers (to add automotive styling). Its a shame we (USA) cant build cars of this quality. Id be willing to pay a bit more for a truck that didnt have to have its tranny changed out 3 times over the course of a 119k miles. (and it didnt even get worked hard ). Let us prey that the bankruptcy procedures remove the chaff from the wheat within GM and Chrysler. Dave

I don't know if my county even has a health dept. We had the crushed pipes fixed and lateral lines added when we bought the house & the septic guy had to get a permit. Then 3 years ago we added a bathroom & the same septic guy had a plumber do everything to connect to the tanks and he didn't have to have a permit. This time, our septic guy just told us what to do, said it was no big deal if it was just the top. Now replacing the tank will be a big deal. This is the first time this tank has ever been touched as far as I know. Surely it wouldn't have been made this way to begin with, but I don't see how concrete can move without cracking. Yes, it's concrete, and when it was completely drained, there were no cracks in the walls or bottom. There were cracks, more like chips about the size of a quarter in the top rim. That may have happened when the roofing truck drove over it 11 years ago. About 10 years ago, a longhorn steer got loose & was walking around in that area too. We've been walking & riding the lawnmower over this cracked lid for 10 years and it might have been this way all that time. If dh hadn't tried taking it off, it might have stayed this way. But now we're worried about the chips in the rim turning into cracks, and need to dig up the other two tanks to look at them. We had the tanks cleaned when we bought the house 10 years ago & then again 2 years ago & no one ever said anything, but I think they just dug up the little cork-like lid in the center of the top of the tank (which I keep calling the lid).

I'm doing the same thing (self-install) in my area, which like you, requires a perc test and soil analysis. Plus a permit up here, but you're allowed to do your own on your own land. I managed to score the *same* manual used in our septic installer's course for certification, and the 3-day (THREE DAYS is all the training required for anyone to become a certified installer here), was more about what a field is, then proper slope and installation. I'd recommend a chamber type system, as they're much easier (imo) to install then a pipe system. My local seller (the 2nd one...the first didn't want to lose the business of pro installers by helping little old me), was actually willing to help me clean up my septic design (I made it based on everything i learned, he sat down and improved it), and even gave me his number to call should I have any questions all weekend long. Seriously, NOT as complicated as they make you think. Heck, my dad's first septic field failed 3 times in the first 10 years and he had it done by a pro. Redid it himself finally and it's gone another 15 without issue. Go figure.

no, the inspector would not know. i would suggest you call and arrange a a meeting between you, the inspector, and your contractor. tell the inspector the contractor and you disagree on whether this matters or not. regardless of how this goes, it is going to cost YOU money. either you have to tear down the deck and be out what you owed the contractor for it, or you have ot pull up and move the tank and be out this cost. like i said earlier, if the contractor hit the tank when digging the posts he knew it was there, and that is your ONLY hope of laying blame off on him. if you tank is deeper than the posts go and he did not hit it, then he had a reasonable expectation of the tank not being there just like you and the inspector. in my area the tank HAS to go where the drawing shows. the health dept tells you where on your land you can put it and then you build your house around that. i have seen people who had a choice of build the house sideways or build a different house because the health dept told them there was only 1 place they could put the tank.